In 1435, in an attempt to strengthen the defences against the Ottomans and Venice, King Sigismund founded the so-called tabor, a military encampment, each in Croatia, Slavonia and Usora. In 1463 King Matthias Corvinus founded the banovina of Jajce and Srebrenik, and in 1469 the military captaincy of Senj, modeled after the Ottoman captaincies in the Province of Bosnia. All these actions aimed to improve defence, but ultimately proved unsuccessful. It did bring forth the CroatianPandur infantry and the SerbianHussar cavalry though.

After 1526 the Croatian Parliament selected the Austrian Habsburgs as kings of Croatia, and Emperor Ferdinand promised the Croatian Parliament that he would give them 200 cavalrymen and 200 infantrymen, and that he would pay for another 800 cavalrymen who would be commanded by the Croatians. Soon the Habsburg Empire founded another captaincy in Bihać. In the short term, all this was also ineffective, as in 1529 the Ottomans swept through the area, captured Buda and besieged Vienna, wreaking havoc throughout the Croatian border areas.

Despite the financial support of the Inner Austrian nobility, the financing of the Military Frontier was not efficient enough. The military leadership in Graz decided to try solutions other than mercenary units. In the 1630s the Imperial Court decided to give land and certain privileges to immigrants into the Frontier (the voivodeships per each captaincy.

In November 1630, the Emperor Ferdinand II proclaimed the so-called Statuta Wallachorum or Vlach Statute,[4] which regulated the status of so-called Vlach settlers (which included Croats, Serbs and Vlachs) from the Ottoman Empire with regard to military command, their obligations and rights to internal self-administration. Over time, the population of the Frontier (as it was then) became mixed between the autochthonous Croats and Croatian serfs who had fled the Ottoman territories, and the numerous minority of Serb and Vlach (who were later assimilated into Croats and Serbs) refugees who strove to expand their rights as a major contributor in the defense of the land. By creating the new military class in the Frontier, the territory of the Frontier eventually became fully detached from the Croatian Parliament and the ban. The Territory of the Frontier had a large Serb population, who fled from their south-eastern lands, and tried to fight the Ottoman forces, making a refuge in Habsburg Croatia. As freedom of faith was granted to them, the Orthodox faith was preserved in spite of their living in a Catholic country. Eventually, the whole population of the Military Frontier became professional soldiers who served the Empire on several fronts and through many European wars, even after the relaxation of the Ottoman threat.

In 1673 the first detailed map of the Military Frontier was released, where the funfair and the public bath for border guard officers and other gentlemen from the neighborhood in Miholjanec was marked.[5] Their wives and children lived together in organized agricultural cooperatives.

After the Great Turkish War and the Treaty of Karlowitz

The 17th century was a relatively peaceful period, during which only smaller raids were made from the Province of Bosnia. After the Ottoman army was repelled at the Battle of Vienna in 1683, the Great Turkish War ended with much of the former Croatian lands under Habsburg control. Despite this, the Frontier system was retained, and expanded onto former Ottoman territories in Lika, Kordun, Banija, lower Slavonia, Syrmia, Bačka, Banat, Pomorišje, and Transylvania. The Habsburg Empire valued the ability to centrally control the area and to draft cheap and numerous army units.

Map of the Military Frontier in the middle of the 19th century (marked with a red outline)

After the Treaty of Karlowitz of 1699, a unit called the Serežan troop formed: it had both military and police duties. The members were not paid, but were freed from paying all taxes. As an irregular unit, they wore a folk uniform rather than an army one. Over the following century, each regiment had one section of the serežani, led by a oberbaša or harambaša (sergeant), several unterbaša (corporal) and vicebaša (lance corporal). They organized the border patrols towards Bosnia, particularly on difficult terrain, and stopped incursions of bandits. They required extensive knowledge of the territory, good marksmanship and to be constantly under arms. They also maintained public law and order in the area of their regiment. There were also cavalry serežan units that served as escort to the high officers of Frontier regiments, carried urgent orders and carried out special patrol duties.

From 1718 to 1739 the Military Frontier also included the Habsburg-controlled northern parts of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina.[6]

In mid-18th century the Frontier was once again reorganized and modelled after the Imperial army and its regular regiments. In 1737, the Vlach Statute was formally abolished. All previous captaincies and voivodships were discarded, and the area was instead subdivided into general-commands, regiments and companies:

After 1767, every twelfth inhabitant of the Military Frontier was a soldier in contrast to every 62nd inhabitant in the rest of the Habsburg Monarchy. The Frontier soldiers became a professional military, ready to move to all European battlefields. Due to further immigration of refugees from the Ottoman domain, and to the expansion of the territory to places previously controlled by the Ottomans, the population of the Frontier became even more mixed. There were still many autochthonous Serbs and Croats in Slavonia and parts of present-day Vojvodina (in Syrmia, Bačka and Banat). However, at this time they became outnumbered by the Serb, Croat and Vlach refugees/immigrants. Some Germans and Magyars also came to the Frontier, mostly as administrative personnel, and there was a number of other settlers and military persons from other parts of the Habsburg Empire such as the Czechs, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Rusyns and others.

In 1787 the civil administration was separated from the military, but this was reversed in 1800. By the Basic Law of the Frontier from 1850, the administration of Military Frontier was split and the land started to look like a state. The Main Command had its headquarters in Zagreb, but remained directly subordinate to the Ministry of War in Vienna.

Abolishment of the frontier

The Croatian Parliament made numerous pleas to demilitarize the Frontier after the Turkish wars subsided. The demilitarization began in 1869 and on August 8, 1873, under Franz Joseph, the Banatian Frontier was abolished and incorporated into the Kingdom of Hungary, while part of Croatian Frontier (Križevci and Đurđevac regiments) was incorporated into Croatia-Slavonia. The decree in which the rest of Croatian and Slavonian Frontiers were incorporated into Croatian-Slavonian crownland was proclaimed on July 15, 1881, while incorporation started to be performed on August 1, 1881, when the Ban of CroatiaLadislav Pejačević took over from the Zagreb General Command.[7]

Demographics

1846

An Austrian statistical yearbook for 1846 notes that 1,226,408 residents lived in the Military Frontier:[8]

1857

The first modern population census in the Austrian Empire was conducted in 1857 and recorded the religion of the population. The population of the Military Frontier numbered 1,062,072 inhabitants,[9] while the religious structure of the Military Frontier was:

Divisions

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the frontier was divided into several districts:

Danube Military Frontier

This section of the Military Frontier existed in the first half of the 18th century and comprised parts of southern Bačka (including Palanka, Petrovac, Petrovaradinski Šanac, Titel, etc.) and northern Syrmia (including Petrovaradin, Šid, etc.). After the abolishment of this section of the Frontier, one part of its territory was placed under civil administration and another part was joined to other sections of the Frontier.

Tisa Military Frontier

This section of the Military Frontier existed between 1702 and 1751 and comprised parts of north-eastern Bačka (including Sombor, Subotica, Kanjiža, Senta, Bečej, etc.). After the abolishment of this section of the Frontier, most of its territory was placed under civil administration, while one small area in the south remained under military administration as part of the Šajkaš Battalion.

Mureș Military Frontier

This section of the Military Frontier existed between 1702 and 1751 and comprised the region of Pomorišje (area on the northern bank of the river Mureș). After the abolishment of this section of the Frontier, its entire territory was placed under civil administration.

Sava Military Frontier

It existed in the first half of the 18th century along the Sava river.

Croatian Military Frontier

This part of the Military Frontier included the geographic regions of Lika, Kordun, Banovina (named after "Banska krajina"), and bordered the Adriatic Sea to the west, Venetian Republic to the south, Habsburg Croatia to the west, and the Ottoman Empire to the east.

Šajkaš Battalion

The Šajkaš Battalion was a small part of the Frontier that was formed in 1763 from parts of the previously abolished Danube and Tisa sections of the frontier. In 1852, Šajkaš battalion was transformed into Titel infantry battalion. It was abolished in 1873, and its territory was incorporated into Bačka-Bodrog County.

Map of Military Frontier sections in Syrmia, Bačka, and Pomorišje in 1699-1718

Map of Military Frontier sections in Syrmia, Bačka, and Pomorišje in 1718-1744

Map of Military Frontier sections in Syrmia, Bačka, and Pomorišje in 1744-1750

Map of Military Frontier sections in Syrmia, Bačka, and Banat in 1751-1873

Map of Military Frontier sections in Banat, Syrmia and Bačka (18th-19th century)

Map of Military Frontier sections in Banat, Syrmia and Bačka in 1849 - Banatian and Slavonian military frontier and Schajkasch Battalion

Map of Slavonian Military Frontier in 1849

Map of Croatian Military Frontier in 1868

Legacy

After the former Yugoslav Republic of Croatia declared independence (in 1991), the Serbs who lived in the region of former Military Frontier (Vojna Krajina) adopted that name (Krajina) in the name of the Republic of Serbian Krajina. However, this Serb entity also included some territories that were not part of the Military Frontier in the past, while large tracts of territory that had constituted the Military Frontier resided outside the Serb region as largely Croat populated areas of the Republic of Croatia (See the Croatian War of Independence for more information).

Sources

(Wikisource)

Further reading / Bibliography

John Van Antwerp Fine, When ethnicity did not matter in the Balkans: a study of identity in pre-nationalist Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia in the medieval and early-modern periods, University of Michigan Press, 2006 ISBN 0-472-11414-X.

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